


Her

by Philosophywax



Category: Original Work, Vampires - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 05:24:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4378919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philosophywax/pseuds/Philosophywax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A man tries to find redemption in a world gone mad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The funny thing is, I really thought, when I didn’t pull the trigger on her the second time, that I was saving her life. From everything I've learned since then, I realize, she actually saved mine.   
I don’t really know how long its been since the big event. Several months for sure. Some people are calling it the Zombie apocalypse, but I don’t believe in Zombies. I don’t think. I mean, I'm smart enough to know they cant exist, but, there they seem to be. It isn’t as bad now as it was for the first few days or weeks, but it still isn’t a picnic. I thought I was happy. I don’t like people, people don’t like me. So when the event happened, it didn’t really bother me. I had a great set up. I had made a little flotilla in the middle of lake Tobesofkee in Georgia. A Cabin cruiser was my main house, a couple of pontoon boats, some jet skis, a couple of other boats all tied together. It was my kingdom. I ruled my kingdom. I was happy. Since these creepers cant swim, I could sleep in peace. My kingdom was mine alone. Mine and all my books. I would lose myself in their worlds for hours. When I got hungry, I could fish or shoot any animal that came to the lake to drink. I was a king in my floating kingdom with no one and very few worries. Then, I saw her.   
I was aiming at a deer on the south bank, just beyond the juniper trees. She was skinny, but, I knew she would feed me for a couple weeks. I shot the deer, and I guess the report from my rifle scared the girl, because she let out a yelp. I moved my rifle in the direction I had heard the scream and saw her. She was filthy. A little girl. Couldn’t have been more than 14 or 15, just standing there, dirt from head to toe, clothes filthy and torn. Looked like she even had a couple of scabs. But it was her eyes. Her eyes had no emotion. Her body was tense and her hand had shot up to cover her mouth. A little late since I had already heard her scream. But it was her eyes. They were looking at me. I mean right through the scope at me. There was no fear. I was watching for signs that she had turned. She wasn’t twitching or stumbling. Just standing there. Looking at me. Focused on me.   
The debate didn’t last long. I had shot my fair share of people in the last few months, so this wouldn’t me much different. A little, since she probably hadn’t turned, and was a young girl. However, the rules of normal society had changed, hadn’t they? Killing was just a routine face of life now. I basically had two choices, squeeze the trigger and put her out of her misery, collect my deer and forget about her, or not shoot. I wasn’t going to bring her on board, and I had barbed wire all around my flotilla, so, even if she could swim, she wouldn’t get on board. Plus, if she tried, it would be considered an act of war and killing would be fair. I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger.  
It took a while for me to open my eyes. Almost as soon as I had fired, I regretted doing it. I wanted to take that bullet back. I wanted her to never have come down here. When I did open my eyes, she wasn’t in my scope sight. I sat down my rifle. Then stared gape mouthed. She was sitting. Still staring at me. Quickly, I picked up my rifle and got a better look. I hadn’t killed her. She was sitting there, still looking at me. My finger made its short trip to the trigger. The debate began all over again, but the regret I felt from when I thought I had shot her came back. I finally decided when she shook her head. Just a quick left then right. She was telling me not to. I thought I saved her life when I didn’t pull that trigger the second time...


	2. Chapter 2

We just stared at each other for the next several hours. Well, I acted like I hadn’t really noticed her and she acted like I hadn’t try to kill her. I busied myself with doing chores on the boats. Nothing that needed to be done, but I still found myself working topside. Occasionally I would glance her way. She was always watching me. It was eerie. She was watching me like someone would watch a play or television show. Just observing. I never saw anger or judgment in her eyes. She never tried to call out to me or get my attention. I needed to get to the bank and get the deer before the meet went bad, but she was too close. In my mind I pictured having to shoot her or kick her off the boat when she tried to rush me as I was dragging the deer aboard. I just knew she would try to.   
I ran out of things to do and redo, so I finally just decided to get the deer. I took my glock with me. I made my way to my meat pontoon, I call her Bessy. This pontoon boat is where I clean game or fish. I got in it, unlocked it and pushed away. I made my way to the shore. Keeping her in my peripheral vision. My left hand on the wheel and my right on the butt of the glock. I wanted it to be quick and easy. When she got too close …..well.....she wouldn’t get too close. She never moved. She just watched me. I was able to get on shore and get the deer onto the makeshift cleaning table on the pontoon. Like I always do, I backed off the shore a little ways and began cleaning. I try to throw all the unused parts back on land to keep my lake clean and, maybe to attract more hungry wildlife. So this work I usually always do near land.   
She was making me nervous. She still wasn’t trying to come toward me or call out to me. It was like she was just waiting for me. Or waiting for someone..... I dropped my knife and pulled my gun and spun around. My kingdom was just floating there. I scanned the woods on the banks all the way around. Something wasn’t right. There is no way she was here alone. I just wish I had thought of it sooner. I went back to the kingdom slowly. Watching for telltale signs of someone on board. There were none. When I got back I carefully went boat to boat, room to room checking. Everything was normal. I figured it was recon time. I got my Sniper riffle and my Hkmp5, extra clips and made my way to my Wave runner. I do this every few days. I make a patrol around the lake from a distance that my Sniper rifle can reach land but only a sniper could reach me. I make concentric ever widening circles until I'm close to the shore. By then I have switched to my mp5. I am so familiar with the land around my part of the lake that I can tell when something isn’t the same. The problem was, everything was the same. Nothing was different.   
It just didn’t sit right with me. I figured, however, that I should just go about my regular activities, but on heightened alert. I went back to the Bessy and finished cleaning the deer, packing it, and cleaning up. I kept a couple of steaks out for dinner and put the rest in my freezer on Fargo, my other pontoon that has a generator and deep freezer. I took the scraps to the opposite shore and tossed them up for the wildlife. I just couldn’t get rid of the feeling that I was being set up for something.  
As I made my way back to the kingdom, I made a circuit and kept an uneasy eye out for something, anything. Other than the leaves blowing down from the main channel of the lake, the only movement was her. She was sitting elbows on knees and just watching me as I worked my way around the cove. When I got to the kingdom, I eased my way around it, watching for anything out of the ordinary. One of the boats sitting lower in the water, one of my barbed wire lines cut or bent. I noticed nothing unusual.   
I started up the grill on top of Mother, my cabin cruiser. I told myself I just wanted a grilled steak, but I was really just wanting to be out in the open, watching. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I grilled the deer steaks, and she watched me.   
The steak was delicious, but I couldn’t enjoy it. I knew she had to be hungry. She was laying on her side, hand under her head, observing. I don’t know why I was feeling sorry for her. I hadn’t felt anything for anyone in quite a while. I had more feelings for my kingdom than anyone I had ever met. But I couldn’t get the idea that she was probably hungry, cold, scared and lonely out of my mind.   
After dinner I went to Tubby, my cargo/supply boat. I thought I still had a sleeping bag and a pop up tent and a few other camping basics. I packed these things, a flashlight the other steak and a couple jugs of water in a ruck sack. I figured, maybe if she had supplies she would move on. I mean there was nothing here for her, so a good meal and a good nights sleep she would be ready to get somewhere. I took the ruck sack, which was much heavier that I thought it would be, to the wave runner, I idled to the shore near her. I knew she was watching me, but she wasn’t moving or saying anything. I brought the sack on shore and dropped it on the berm near her. I finally looked at her as I climbed back on the runner. I cant explain what happened, what I felt, but it was like something broke in me, not a bad break, just something, kinda of, shifted. The cause? As close as I could tell, she smiled. She was watching me, smiled and mouthed thank you.


	3. Chapter 3

I didn’t sleep well that first night. I kept hoping she would eat, get some rest, then push on. Several times during the night I went topside to look around. Or at least that’s what I told myself. I was really checking on her. She did eat, and she drank the water. She didn’t set up the tent. She used the sleeping bag as a pillow. This was a first for me since the event. I wasn’t sleeping well. I tried to read, but nothing held my interest. This is why I don’t like people. If you just have yourself to worry about, your life is so much easier. Why did I care? Was it guilt that I tried to kill her? It shouldn’t have been, I have done much worse, for less logical reasons. I spent the whole night trying to figure how she got to this point? She had to have family, or at least did at one point.   
I have seven houses. Well, when I say I have seven, I mean I have taken over seven houses. I uses them as storage facilities away from my kingdom. They are scattered all around the lake. When I need supplies or tools I go to them. I picked the seven because they seem to have everything I need. They also have easy access to the lake and were easy to booby trap so when I’m not there, they are protected to a certain extent. It isn’t so bad now, but there was a point when I had acquired 36 houses, but either the creeps, or looters or natural disasters have limited me down to these seven. The one I headed to right after sunlight and breakfast is the one I call Yuppy. I never knew who lived there, or where they are now, but I assume they were yuppy-is from all the stuff they have. Lots of electronics DVDs and clothes. Not much as far as tools go, but good for everything else. I know, whoever this was had a daughter. Or some young girl who lived there, from all the pinks and purples and little hello cats all over the room on the top floor looking out over the lake. It was this room I was headed for.   
I got to Yuppy without any problem. I did my scout around the property. The last thing I want to do is be surprised by someone who had happened along and found this place. I saw where some animals had, apparently come up to the porch and stuff, probably to get out of the weather, but it didn’t look like any of my traps had been set off. Which was good. The house had a dank smell and needed airing out, but, I wasn’t going to be living here, so I just went to work.   
I have no children, I have no siblings. So I have no idea what girls need or don’t need. There was a ton of stuff in the room. I discounted much of it, teddy bears, posters, little figurines things like that. The closet had several suitcases, all pink or purple with some kind of cartoon dancing all over them. They were cheap and not well made, but I was betting they were still expensive. I took the largest of the suitcases and packed up a bunch of clothing from the closet. No dresses, nothing white or fancy. Several pairs of shoes, also went in the bag. The dresser was a little harder. I opened all the drawers and just stared. Since I had no idea what to pack, if anything, I just left the bag there and took the smaller bag into the bathroom. There I loaded up everything from the shower, medicine cabinet, and sink. I didn’t know what have of the stuff was, but I figured if she didn’t need it, she could just pitch it. I went back into the bedroom and just grabbed handfuls of the clothing that was in the drawers and put it in the big suitcase. I just grabbed a handful or two from each drawer without even looking, and trying not to think about all this stuff and tossed them all in the big case.   
I looked around the room and my eyes landed on her desk. There were several electronic things, a pink laptop, a bunch of cords and stuff. Several book about vampires, and ironically, zombies. I packed all that stuff. I didn’t know if she needed any of it, or even knew what they were for, but better to be safe than sorry. I’m sure she would come across a power source somewhere along the way if she did. In fact, that might even motivate her to get moving. I took my loot to the jet ski and went back locked up and reconnected the traps. When I got back to my cove, she was still sleeping. I came up close to shore and tossed the bags on shore. She sat up with a start. But I was already headed back to my kingdom.


	4. Chapter 4

We fell into a rhythm of sorts over the next few days. She made her little camp, I would patrol and hunt and cook. I would bring food over a couple times a day. I was having a hard time figuring her out. She never asked for anything or seemed disappointed or angry or anything really. She just was. And I was and we were a community, I suppose. On the third she finally spoke to me. I was so used to not hearing anything, I guess I had assumed maybe she couldn’t speak. So when she finally did speak, I scared me a little. I had just brought over some grilled bass and more water. I was on my way back to the wave runner when she spoke.  
“Sir” she said. Her voice was not really timid, just polite. I spun around with my hand already reaching for my gun, which I hadn’t brought.  
“I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to scare you” she said. The apology was more in her eyes than her voice.  
“What?” I said. I would have thought after reading so many books lately, seeing all the eloquent dialogue between people in all those pages I would have come up with something better. But, no, what was all I said. However, it didn’t seem to bother her and she smiled, took a shy step toward me  
“May I go with you next time?” she said. I felt my brow crinkle. I had no idea what she meant. 'next time'? Did she mean to my kingdom? Surely not, if she had mean that she would have just said can I go with you. Not can I go with you next time. The confused look was apparently answer enough, so she continued.  
“I mean, thank you so much for all the clothes and stuff, and the food is delicious, but the next time you go.......wherever you went to get the clothes, can I go with you?”she said  
“Why” I said. My command of the English language was just as effective as the first time I spoke to her.  
“These clothes are wonderful, and I appreciate you getting them for me, but, if I go, I might be able to find something that fits a little better.”She said  
I don’t know how I had missed it, but she was wearing the new clothes, but it looked like she had put on several pieces of the clothes. I realized that the ones I had gotten her had been for someone much younger than she was.   
“It isn’t Walmart or target, its just a house. I could only get what they had.” I was very happy that my words had multiplied and I got out an entire sentence. I started to turn back to the runner  
“I assumed that. But I don’t have to have girly clothes. I would just like something that fits a little better. Not that I don’t appreciate these, but they are a little hard to move in.”she said as she demonstrated by raising her arms up and I realized that the clothes had been so tight that a couple of the seems had busted. “Plus, I would like to see if I can find a charger for my iPhone” she was holding up a little pink phone.  
“it wouldn’t do any good, I doubt there is any phone service yet” I said.   
“I know”, she looked at the phone and started to clean the screen. “but this phone is the only way my mom has to reach me. There might not be any phone service now, but I really want to have it charged when we do get it. I want to let her know that I am alright.” she lowered her head, still cleaning the screen. Her voice broke near the end of her statement. For the first time I saw sadness in her. And fear. She sat down, head still down looking at the phone, that if it was dirty had to be clean by now.   
I didn’t know what to say or do. I don’t like when women cry. I apparently like it even less when girls cry.   
“I know she is sad and misses me a lot. I want to tell her not to cry. And that I love her.” she looked up and me, and for the first time, since I first looked at her eyes through the scope, I saw them clearly. The were a greenish blue, but were red around the edges from crying. As she looked at me a tear ran down her face, but she kept looking at me, “and I am afraid if I don’t get this charged, I cant tell her that I love her. Please, sir?”  
What do you say to that? How did my life change so much? This is why I don’t like people. I was doing fine, all alone in my kingdom with no people around. Now, one little girl comes into my life and everything changes. I don’t like people, I don’t care about them. So why do I need her to stop crying? I know her mom is probably gone. Everyone she knows is probably gone. The phone will do her no good, and it is a ridicules thing to try to keep it charged. It is also very risky to go to my houses as it is, alone, but even more so with a sniveling little girl. No, I can do it, I cant take her with me next time. For every reason in the world, the answer is no.  
“Yes, honey, you can go. We can go later today.” I said. Then turned around and walked back to my runner. I didn’t turn around to look at her. I was afraid of what those eye might do to me.   
“Thank you” she said.


	5. Chapter 5

I spent the rest of the morning doing a little adjusting. I took the runner over to a dock down by the restaurant that used to be popular when people still ate cooked food. There was a small cabin cruiser that I had lived in for a few days before I found the right one. I cautiously boarded it. I had left it drifting near the dock at anchor, so there was probably no one on board, but it is better to be sure. There wasn’t. I started it up and was surprised to find it started right up. I did a little house cleaning and then tied the runner to the cruiser and took them to the pumps.   
The boat fuel pumps haven’t worked since power went out, but if you know anything about those pumps, on the back side, there is a lever that can be removed and slid into an opening on the front and you can pump fuel by hand. I suppose this is for when storms come thru and there is no power but people still need fuel. It looked like the underground tanks still had hundreds of gallons, I filled up the tanks on the smaller cabin cruiser and the runner. I then went back to the kingdom and anchored the small cruiser near the kingdom.   
After my housecleaning, I went back to shore. She was there waiting. She actually looked happy, maybe even excited. I stopped her before she waded out to get on.  
“First of all, lets get some ground rules straight. We are going to just get the supplies you need, we aren’t going shopping or investigating” I said. She just smiled and nodded at all my demands  
“i have a couple places that I have set up with booby traps and so I need to go up first. I don’t pull the runner on to shore in case I have to make a quick get away. The best I can tell these creatures cant swim, so if we find ourselves in need of getting away, just jump in the water and start swimming. We can get back to the runner and go from there” I looked to make sure she was actually paying attention.  
“Got it, get things we need, you go first, swim to shore and swim back if shit goes bad” she said, still smiling  
“We don’t need to use language like that, but, yes. Now, do you know everything you need?”i asked  
“Yes, I need shoes...” she began. I raised my hand to cut her off.  
“sorry, but I don’t need to know, and if its some stuff I don’t want to know, but as long as you know what you need, we can get this done much quicker. You ready”  
“Yes, sir” she said  
“Skip. Just call me skip”  
“Yes sir, Mr. Skip”  
“No, just Skip. Not Mr. or sir. Skip. Plain and simple.”  
“OK, can you call me Sarah?  
“Sure, Sarah. Lets go”  
It took a little doing to get her on and situated. I’m pretty sure she had never been on a runner before. She might have never been on any kind of boat before. But after a few awkward moments, we got settled in. I was afraid she might get seasick, so I took it easy. I took her in a round about way to the house. Both to look at the shore and make sure no one was lurking, but also to check the traps and also, I didn’t trust her. I had no reason not to, but I don’t trust anyone. In fact for some reason, I already trust her more than I have anyone in years. The coast was clear, literally. It looked like one of my traps was sprung so I made a mental note to come back later and check it.   
“It is the one up there on the left. The white one with the little dock sticking out into the lake.” I told her and pointed it out. I idled past it and then circled back. I came up near the shore and turned off the runner.   
“Is there a garage building at the front of the house?” She asked  
“Um, yeah” I said, very confused “have you been here before?”  
“No, but don’t open the door to it” she said. She wasn’t looking at me, she was looking at the house. “This isn’t the right place. But we can go look anyway”  
“How do you know this isn’t the right place and that I shouldn’t open the door” I asked as I stepped off the runner.   
“I don’t know. I just feel” she said taking my hand and jumping off the runner. I pushed the runner further away from the shore and made my way to the shore pulling my gun.  
“are you saying you are psychic or something?” I said as I walked up the path  
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. I cant see things, I just have these feelings.” She said “Like when you first tried to shoot me, I just knew when to sit down. I also knew you weren’t going to shoot at me again.” she was saying this very matter of fact and watching her step. But her words stopped me in my tracks. She ran into me since she was watching her feet and hadn’t noticed I stopped. I turned around to face her  
“You knew I........I.......that I thought about.......” I tried to say it, but I couldn’t make the words fit.  
“Shooting me. Yes. And you didn’t think about it. You did shoot at me.”she said. She smiled “Its OK, you didn’t hit me, and then you fed me.” she walked around me and headed up toward the house. I just watched her. She knew. I realized I had convinced myself that I really didn’t mean to shoot her and that she couldn’t really tell where I had been shooting. But she knew. She knew this whole time and still trusted me. I began to follow her.


	6. Chapter 6

I don’t like people. People don’t like me. That is my life. Or was until she happened along. It worked out well. But she apparently did. And I didn’t know what to do with that information. The anger and hatred I felt toward myself when I first saw her and thought I had shot her came flowing back. I thought I had let that go. No harm, no foul. I made a mistake, it all worked out so everything was fine. It wasn’t She knew. She knew what I had been wanting to do. What I was capable of and in spite of that, liked me and trusted me. That wasn’t possible. I know there might have been some people in my life who liked me, or at least acted like they did, but they were all show. When it came down to it, no one did, and I never did anything to make them not like me. With her, though, I did do something, and she still did. What was worse, was she knew.   
A vision came to me clearly. She was walking up the path, her back to me. I raised my gun. No one would hear, no one would know. The only person who would know would be gone. My life could go back to the way it was. It would probably be best anyway. It is much easier to function and survive with just one mouth to feed. Our whole expedition today was for her, had she not been with me, I would be on my boat reading. My gun followed her. There was no cocking. I felt the trigger under my finger. I know I did. She stopped. Raised her head from watching the ground in front of her, but didn’t turn around. NOW. Pull the trigger. I couldn’t I was squeezing it, I could feel the pain in my finger from squeezing so hard but the trigger didn’t budge.   
“I still won't hate you” she said. Still, never turning around. She just stood there. She wasn’t more than 30 feet. I could throw the gun and hit her. Nothing worked. My finger my arm, nothing. My forehead broke in a cold sweat. A drop of sweat ran into my right eye, but I couldn’t even blink.   
“I’m not saying ill be happy, but I refuse to hate you. I even understand” she said again. Her voice didn’t even have anger in it. She could have been telling me 'those are tall trees'.   
I got light headed, then I was able to close my eyes. I leaned over and put my hands on my knees. When I opened my eyes, my hands were on my knees, but my gun was in the holster. I looked up and she was looking at me, smiling.  
“Come on, don’t we need to be in a hurry here?” she asked, then turned and started back up the hill.  
I blinked my eyes several times, stood up straight. Wiped the sweat off my forehead with my left sleeve and checked with my right to make sure my gun was still there. It was. I need to say here, that I don’t know if any of that actually happened. I get the feeling it did, but that it couldn’t have. I cant explain it any better than that. My finger had an imprint of the trigger on it.   
“Yeah, we should, but when you get up there, don’t go in, I have it trapped” I said.  
I walked up the hill to the back porch. She was sitting there playing with the weeds that had overtaken the lawn. I came up to her, she looked up at me, one eye closed to shade the sun and the other squinting. She was holding a dandelion up to me.   
“hang on to that for me” I said as I walked around her to the windows and looked in. “just stay right there for a minute”  
I looked in the filmy window and looked around. Everything seemed to be exactly as I had left it and there was no movement. One of the first things I did when I claimed these houses was to remove all the doors and curtains. Then I would tear down all the sheet rock from the lower half of all the walls. I knew that if someone was going to hide, they would do it in a room with a closed door or behind a wall. But this way, I could pretty much see the whole layout from any point. I walked over to the next window. I didn’t see anything different from this window. I did the same thing from all the windows. Around the lower level. There were a couple of places I had knocked holes in the ceiling of the lower level and the floor of the upper level to see up, but they looked undisturbed, also. I knew the only way to know for sure that no one was in there, was to go in.   
when I got to the side of the house I stood for a minute looking at the shed. She had told me not to go in there. I walked over to it and put my hand on the handle. It was simple, there were no psychics, she didn’t know what was on the other side. I could open it, and be satisfied and then move on. But she DID know. Didn’t she? She knew I was going to shoot at her. Three times now, you idiot. Yes, she had to know. I hedged my bet. She also said she wouldn’t find what she needed in the house. I decided we would go in, and if she found one thing that she could use, I would investigate the shed also. Simple. And I was going to be very liberal on what I considered something she 'needed'. I let go of the handle and backed away from it. I couldn’t swear to it, but the building seemed to sigh. That is the only way I can explain. It didn’t actually move, just kind of relaxed. But since buildings cant actually relax, I'm pretty sure, that was the heat or something messing with my head.   
when I got back to the back of the house, she was still sitting there and by now had collected an entire bouquet of weeds. It didn’t seem childish, like a kid playing in the dirt, it just seemed to be something peaceful for her to do. I watcher her for a minute. I wish I could see the beauty in those nasty weeds that she seemed to find, but I couldn’t   
“I've got to go in to check and make sure everything is safe. Give me a second, OK?” I asked. I pulled out my Davis Industries .380 from the small of my back and held it out toward her butt first. “If you see anyone besides me, just start pulling the trigger and get to the water”  
She looked up at me and smiled.   
“Its OK, we wont need it now” She said and then went back to adding what looked like baby’s breath to her bouquet.  
I stood there with the gun held out for a little bit considering my options. I sat it down next to her and walked toward the house. Since then I have wondered if I was giving her a chance to shoot at me. To make us.....even or something. She never even looked at the gun.


	7. Chapter 7

I have a little booby trap just inside the doors and windows, I wont explain the details, but I disabled the trap and opened the door. Once inside I squatted down and looked through all the holes in the walls, I didn’t see anything. I closed my eyes to listen. I didn’t hear anything and did a quick check in all the closets and rooms. I also leave a few items placed in certain places. My thinking is that if someone was here, they would move these things and get them out of the way. They were all where I left them. I checked upstairs and everything seemed fine. Ill be honest, I took a little longer than I usually do, but I was also looking for something the could be considered needed. I’m not sure what to look for. I finally came back down and went outside.   
“are you ready?” I asked.  
“sure” she said, getting up and dusting off herself. “All clear, right?”  
“yeah, it's all clear” I said, “but you do want to make sure you don’t move anything that is in the middle of the floor. Also, there are big holes in the floors, just watch your step”  
“I know how to not fall in holes” she said, “but thank you for the heads up”  
she walked up the stairs and opened the door. I walked around the house again just to make sure nothing had changed. I was surprised to find that she had already come back down before I made my circuit.   
“Everything alright?”i asked.  
“yeah, you realized that now women or girls live here, right? I mean, there is nothing that I could even use here.”she said  
“Did you check all the closets and drawers and stuff?” I said.  
“well, yeah. But the only stuff that I could use was stuff you already got me. I did look at the clothes and shoes but they were all too big. Thank you though” she said putting her hand on my forearm. “would it be asking too much if we could try one more?”  
“um, sure. I guess” I said.  
“can I pick the house this time?”  
“well, I only have some houses set up”  
“oh, OK Is there a house with a blue roof thingy over the dock that sticks out and has a canoe. A red one I think?”  
I was stunned. There was a house like that. It wasn’t one of mine, but I had checked it out. I didn’t remember why I never pursued it, but I hadn’t I realized I was just staring at her perplexed.  
“are you alright?”she asked.  
“yeah, I am, but how did you … know? That feeling thing?”i asked  
“i think” she said walking back down to the runner. “it might have been a dream. I get those confused. Well, not really confused, but sometimes I don’t remember. Well, whatever they are, I try to follow along. I haven’t been wrong so far.”  
We made our way down to the lake. I tried to come up with a reason that I shouldn’t trust her instinct or whatever, and I couldn’t come up with one. My mind kept replaying the day we met. By the time we got on board I decided, for the time being, we would go with her feelings. Maybe it was penance or something. Some way of making up for what I almost did. I figure we would give it a shot.   
“WE can go there, but, I haven’t been there in awhile, so Ill have to do some recon first. There weren’t any of the things there then, but who knows now?” I said as I helped her on the runner.  
“Can I ask you, what are they?” she said.  
“Good question. I guess the best word would be a zombie, but I don’t know if that is very accurate either. I think it is probably some kind of disease that spreads quickly messes your head up” I admitted.  
“But they aren’t like in the movies.” She said. “Do you think everyone is.......affected? I mean how many people got away besides us?”  
I started up the engine and idled as I thought about the answer.  
“I honestly don’t know, I didn’t really care. I didn’t see anyone else make it, but I'm sure there are some people who did.” I said.  
“How many have you killed?”she asked.  
“None” I said. “See, I figure they are already dead, I'm just stopping them from moving. But to answer your question, I don’t know that either. When this first happened I was stopping close to a hundred a day. That has slacked off and I haven't stopped any in the last couple of weeks. I’ve even seen a couple but didn’t waste the bullets. No reason to, they weren’t anywhere near me.”  
“But didn’t you want to stop them from suffering” She asked  
“No. I mean, we don’t know that they are actually suffering. They don’t seem to feel any pain. They just move on pure base instinct. They look for food and water. They don’t seem to know that they can die. They also don’t really know how to operate anything besides their own body. And I’m pretty sure that’s just some kind of instinct.”  
“Wait, water? You mean they drink?” she asked, a confused look shadowed her face.  
“I think they do. I’ve seen them stick their heads in the water. And Since a body can only live for a few days without water, they kind of have to. But they don’t seem to know that they need to breathe, too. When they stick their heads in, sometimes they come up for air, sometimes they never come back out. Kind of interesting to watch.” I looked back over my shoulder. She was watching the bank to our left, but I'm not sure she was seeing it. I wanted to ask her how she managed by herself to survive for all this time. I don’t know if those memories would be too strong to talk about. Plus, I had a hunch that this feeling thing she seemed to have did its fair share of protecting her. I turned back around. At the third cove over I turned in. She pointed to her right and said,   
“Right there. Wow, its just like I pictured”  
“I know, but lets make a pass first and see if there is anything around” I said.  
I turned to the left and fast idled just out from the bank. I have learned to not look at anything specific or directly. To let my peripheral vision find movement. A couple of times I saw something, but it was just some trees moving a little in the wind. We made our way to the dock. I helped her up, then I climbed up and pushed the runner away. I looked up at the house. Then I felt her grab my forearm.  
“We need to go there. But you are going to need the gun.”She said.  
My heart started beating faster, I felt my scalp grow tight and my skin flush. My hand was already making its way to my holster. I looked down at her. She was still holding my forearm, but was looking up at the house. It wasn’t fear I saw on her face. But her mouth made a straight line. Her eyes were fixed.   
“Are you ready?” she asked without even looking at me. It had to be right then. Right that second that I knew I trusted her. I think I might have even trusted her more than I trusted myself. I don’t know why. But I did. And when I realized it, I relaxed. Not completely, I mean I was still on high alert, but I had a calm confidence that I hadn’t felt on land before.   
“Yeah, I believe so” I looked down at her and smiled. I had didn’t know when the last time I smiled was, but I did. I turned my attention to the house and pulled my guns.


	8. Chapter 8

I don’t know what I felt, but it wasn’t nervous or fear. Maybe just curious. We moved cautiously up the hill and kept to the longer grass. I heard a noise and squatted down, pulling her down beside me. “What is...” she began. But I held my finger up in the air, my eyes were closed. I don’t know if it is true or not, but I've heard the if you close your eyes you can hear better. It does seem to work for me. I sat there for a minute and both heard it and smelled it at the same time. There is an odor that hovers these things. Kind of a earthy decay smell. Like dirt when you first dig it up after a rain.   
I opened my eyes and held my finger to my lips. She was staring intently at me. She nodded. And scrunched up her nose. She had caught the smell, too. I stood a little and looked around us in all directions. Wherever they were, they didn’t seem to be on this side of the house. I looked up at the windows of the house and there were not faces looking down. I walked in a crouch toward the side of the house. I put my left shoulder against it and looked back. She had followed and was staying close to the wall, too. We moved one step at a time toward the front corner of the house. As we moved, the smell and noise got more intense. When I got to the corner, I squatted down on my haunches and leaned toward the corner. I peeked around the side and, sure enough, there were at least four of them. It looked like they were trying to figure out how to get thru the window. I moved back around the side. I held up four fingers to her. I put my sig away and moved my glock to my left hand. Then with my right I reached up and pulled the sawed off shotgun I keep strapped to my back. It hold six rounds, so this shouldn’t be a problem. Unless there were more inside or just out of sight. I checked that there was one round in the chamber. I stood up and pulled out six more shells from my thigh pocket and put them in my jacket pocket for easy access if I needed it. I took a deep breath look at her and then winked. I stepped around the side. Like I figured, they didn’t look at me. I lined up on them and squatted and aimed at their knees. They were in a picket line of sorts so most of the knees would not make it past my first shot. I pulled the trigger. I saw it all in my head before I Pulled the trigger. I would shoot the knees, it should take down 3 of the four standing there. I would immediately stand up while pumping another round and take aim on the fourth, who would be turning toward me, making a perfect target. One shot where the neck meets the shoulders and they would be neutralized. I would have to finish the rest off, but that would just be a matter of standing over them and separating their heads from the rest of their body. Which at close range, my glock will do nicely.   
It worked pretty much like I had planned. However, I didn’t expect the scream. It didn’t come from the things, and it didn’t register until I had pulled the second shot and the fourth thing was falling. But there had been a scream, and it had come from above us, in the house. When I registered the scream, I grabbed her and pushed her behind me, blocking her from the house, while aiming my twelve gauge at the windows and backing away from the house. I didn’t see anything but kept the shotgun aimed at the house while I look around the perimeter. There didn’t seem to be any movement coming in toward us, so I focused again at the house.   
“I have a twelve gauge shot gun and you are in a wooden house.” I yelled up, “My rounds will go right thru there. Show yourselves or I start shooting. “ I had no idea if my rounds would go thru the walls or not, but I figured they didn’t either. I saw movement in the window on the right. Then I saw two figures standing at the windows with their hands held above their heads. I motioned to them to come down. They both nodded and moved away from the window. I figured they would come thru the front door, or this could be a trap. I took her by the hand and we hustled over to an oak that was in the front yard and got behind it. The door opened. Two people walked out slowly. A man, probably in his early thirties and a lady a decade or so older. Neither looked very healthy, but they didn’t look dead either.   
“I’m Andy and this is Shelly, Please don’t shoot. We didn’t mean to trespass, we were just looking for somewhere to hide.” Said the man  
“And something to eat, we meant no harm” the woman said.  
We moved away from the tree. As soon as they started speaking I lowered my shotgun. I was reloading as we walked toward them.   
“We are sorry, sir, we didn’t know anyone lived here...”he began.  
“shut it, no one lives here. We were just coming to grab some stuff, too. Are you armed?” I said.


End file.
